Abogados

That's according to editors of such publications who discussed the issue Wednesday at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's annual meeting in San Antonio.

Though the United States long has had a crop of Spanish-language newspapers, only in the past five years have mainstream media organizations realized the potential of catering to the blossoming Hispanic population by starting papers that provide local news and operate under the U.S. journalistic precepts of accuracy and balance.

"I liken it to the Internet," said Gilbert Bailon, editor of Al Dia, a six-day-a-week Spanish-language paper published by the Dallas Morning News. "People woke up and said, 'things have changed.'"

In less than two years, the paper's wholly bilingual reporters have begun uncovering stories previously not found by other journalists, he said. "This is an operation that is viable and will be around long-term," Bailon said.

It's a movement that not only will benefit Hispanics but the wider community by keeping people informed, lending to harmony and political participation, said Federico Subervi, a professor of communication at Texas State University who has been studying Spanish-language media for about 20 years.

Reporters for these new publications are providing relevant stories by going out into the communities and getting authentic voices, Subervi told the 40 or so journalism professors in the audience.

With at least three Hispanic-oriented newspapers, majority-Hispanic San Antonio represents a microcosm of what the rest of the country will experience, said Arturo Fux of the local Telemundo station.

The San Antonio Express-News launched one of those publications, Conexion, last year. Written 85 percent in English and 15 percent in Spanish, the weekly paper aims at assimilated, acculturated people who generally have
adopted English, said Dino Chiecchi, editor of Hispanic Publications at the Express-News.

"Our mission is to try to celebrate being Hispanic," he said, "to write about the things Hispanics are doing."

He mentioned the paper's series on twin girls who originally said they wanted a car rather than a quinceanera but after hearing about the coming-out parties for 15-year-old girls from their friends decided to celebrate their
heritage and culture.

Meanwhile, the Spanish-language, five-day-a-week Rumbo newspaper, introduced last year in San Antonio, Houston, Austin and the Rio Grande Valley, caters mainly to first-generation Hispanics.

"That's the person we're trying to help make it here," said Edward Schumacher Matos, CEO of Meximerica, which publishes Rumbo. "Our hope," Matos said, "is to continue launching more Rumbos."

Source: Copyright (c) 2005, San Antonio Express-News